I began to rate apples 10 years ago. My goal was to open an alternate "doorway" into my work, which had grown to include 125 apple reviews.
It's now my habit to rate the prior year's apples annually, rather than on the fly. I do so at the dead center of winter (today!), when there is not so much going on here anyway.
My rating system is qualitative rather than quantitative: no fussy and pretentious point scores, just my opinions expressed in a system of zero to three stars.
Nonetheless I aim to be rigorously consistent within my subjective framework.
* Worth choosing
The apples I sample are not always in the greatest shape. They may
sometimes merit more stars at peak.
I had the pleasure of trying 6 new (to me) "worth choosing" apples last year: surprising "Fauxwhelp", Keener Seedling (a crisp russet), crunchy Kinderkrisp, MAIA 38, and NY 1229.
Also, Hawkeye, which I was particularly delighted to try. More below.
"Fauxwhelp" is the unofficial name of an apple that, for some reason, passed in the Americas as Foxwhelp, a famous English cider apple. It's not bad for eating but is not the tannic cider bittersharp.
"MAIA 38" is an experimental breed being evaluated by the Midwest Apple Improvement Association, thus the name.
Hawkeye is the heritage apple that literally mutated into Red Delicious, and I was especially excited to taste one.
Hawkeye might have earned a star based on its central role in the history of apples. I was delighted to find that a fresh Hawkeye is genuinely "delicious" and worth a star on its own account.
It deteriorated quickly in my refrigerator, though.
With these 6, all from readers, I am up to 162 one-star apples.
** Worth a journey
- Centennial Crabapple, superbly crisp little flavor bombs.
- Salome, which was not only excellent but also came wrapped in a puzzle. Recent gene analysis has shown that Salome is the same as Cherryfield and Benton Red, both from Maine. Each one has a unique origin story. Which is true?
- Sierra Beauty, delicious and a top-notch keeper (I polished off my last sample in the new year).
Each of these excellent two-star apples came my way courtesy of readers of
this blog. Thank you again!
My two-star count is now 70 apples.
Three-star apples are "worth a quest," but am pretty stingy with that category and have no changes this year.
But I do want to say a few words about the forth category, apples that get no stars from me at all.
No Stars, or Your Stars?
In the second place, some are, if not delicious, still interesting. Many have compelling stories. Some have qualities for cider or cooking that do not translate into eating out of hand.
Sampling Keim and Hewes (the latter a celebrated cider apple) are both interesting activities, though I'm not going to choose these varieties for pleasure.
Finally, these ratings only reflect my personal tastes, which are not any righter than yours and may be different from them.
Most people seem to like Honeycrisp a good deal more than I, for instance. Are they wrong?
What do you like?
You may find some real gems in this group. I learned something from each of them.
Thanks to all, and best wishes for the coming year.
The featured stellar photo is courtesy of ESA/Hubble. Wikimedia provides a description of the celestial object photographed.
I got to taste some decent specimens of Centennial this year finally. It was promising, and I expect better from it in the future.
ReplyDeleteI live in the region that made Sierra Beauty famous(ish), but I've never had one elicit any enthusiasm from me. I might not even grow it anymore. Growers like it because it is productive, well behaved and looks nice. I've never seen the appeal though.
As far as hawkeye, I recognize it's quality, but I just can't get into that floral-ish or perfumy flavor. When I was growing up, most Red Delicious seemed to be that old striped Hawkeye type, with red stripes on a yellowing background. They can be flavorful and sweet, but like you said, it's a matter of taste sometimes. My friend found a tree of those old style Hawkeyes and brought some over. I knew what it was by sight immediately by the shape and that distinctive coloration. They were in perfect condition, but one bite was more than enough for me. I also don't like Kidd's Orange Red all that much, because there is still some of that perfumy flavor in it. For anyone that like that flavor, I would definitely look for an older striped type to grow. I had a chance to get some scions that supposedly were decended directly from the original tree, but I was like meh.
I think of the floral flavors as an ingredient that can work will with some other tastes. I like it in Macoun quite a bit. Not so much in Gala, where it leads.
DeleteI made the mistake of buying a bag of RosaLynn. The combination of floral and corn syrup was just not happy for me. OK for cutting into my oats but not for eating straight up.
Adam, growing 500 kinds here and tasting fruit from different regions, of course there is a huge environmental aspect to flavor nuance. Many in your list do not make top 50 in my environment. The challenge of ratings- I think geographics, region, is primary. Outside of just tasting that is. Growing is what I'm talking about here. Regional resistance to pest/disease enters the rating chart. I am so looking for someone to help produce an open source universal chart that could be applied regionally (I use excel).
ReplyDeleteGil, that is also my experience. It's why I always take pains to qualify these annual events (and many reviews) with disclaimers about my own experience, may not have been at peak, etc.
DeleteAlso why I am a skeptic about quantitative ratings that award so many points for this and that. I feel those systems would gild my conclusions with a false sense of scientific precision.
PS, Gil, what does really well where you live?
DeleteMy latest wow this year was Adam's Pearmain grown in W. WA and Keepsake grown in central Bucks County-Eastern Pa... Consumed in November. Both hold at least until January.
ReplyDelete